Mother’s Day is comin’ in hot and Mother’s Day gift ads for flowers and cards are probably already choking your algorithm. But for a mom or mom-like figure who loves to cook and indulge, there are loads of gifts to choose. The list of Mother’s Day must-haves for your mama could make you dizzy. But, hey, that’s certainly better than too few gift ideas.
Skip the done-to-death gift box of chocolate, bouquet or bubble bath bundle, and get her the Mother’s Day food gifts she really wants. If she loves complicated recipes, grab her beautiful heirloom cookware with a fabulous new cookbook to hone her skills. For an at-home entertainer or cocktail party host, a dazzling serving board or a flashy set of cocktail glasses paired with a nice bottle of wine or craft premade cocktails could be the perfect Mother’s Day gift to vault her home happy hours into a new stratosphere.
There are also more practical gift ideas that still provide something original, like an indoor garden for fresh herbs, or a curated snacking gift box packed with delicious treat after treat for the sweet tooth in your life. And when all else fails, you can always send her something splendidly savory, such as a shipment of fresh fish, gourmet ingredients, a gift basket subscription for steak or a trio of cheeses to hit that not-so-sweet spot.
We covered all those bases (and more) in curating this list of perfect Mother’s Day food gifts for any spirit-crafting savant or nom-loving mom.
Read more: Best Flower Delivery for Mother’s Day
If Mom fancies a margarita, fresh lemonade or uses citrus juice for any number of other culinary purposes, this handheld juicer will make getting the good stuff out a much easier task. The Fluicer (that’s short for “flat juicer”) not only squeezes the half lemon or lime but also bends it for a much more complete squeeze.
The Fluicer comes in three sizes with one large enough for oranges. All three will juice circles around those other handheld contraptions and it just might be my favorite kitchen gadget of the year.
If Mom prefers to have her cocktails made for her, these exceptional premixed classics courtesy of New York’s beloved Via Carota are just the thing. Choose from classics like the Negroni and white Negroni, Manhattan and espresso martini.
My pick is for the Negroni set which includes both Negroni cocktails — 375 ml each — two Italian-made lowball glasses and a Via Carota brass stirrer. I’m honestly not sure what I like more, the divine cocktails (yes, I’ve tried them all) or the chic bottles they arrive in. It’s definitely the fastest way to bring that Italian coast vacation fantasy to wherever Mom happens to be.
There’s no such thing as too many small bowls for someone who cooks or entertains; perfect for condiments, sauces, nuts and spices. These six ceramic bowls with modern swirl are each unique. They come in giftable packaging, ready to be wrapped and bestowed upon Mom.
This gorgeous maple serving board with resin shoreline detail looks good enough to swim in, and certainly good enough to snack off of.
Missy Robbins is the brains behind Lilia, one of New York’s toughest-to-get tables and home to some of the best bowls of pasta outside of Italy. In her second cookbook offering, Robbins outlines easy homemade pasta recipes and equally approachable sauces like a spicy Fra Diavolo you can whip up in about 20 minutes.
Read more: Best Food Subscriptions for Mother’s Day
If Mom likes wine but doesn’t always get through the bottle in one sitting, this brilliant preservation system will keep an open bottle fresh for up to a month. The Pivot works by pumping argon gas back into the bottle as you pour to keep harmful oxygen out and keep the wine inside as fresh as when you popped the cork.
Membership to the Curdbox club nets Mom a monthly package of three different cheeses and three specially curated goodies to pair with them. The cheeses it chooses are in the crowd-pleasing zone and not overly intense, so this makes an excellent gift for even a novice cheese taster.
My first Curdbox delivery included 4 ounces each of an incredible Prairie Breeze cheddar, a creamy cow’s milk Toma by Point Reyes and a slightly crumbly cow and goat milk cheese from Central Coast Creamery. Plus, a jar of cherry spread, positively addictive sweet potato chips and a bag of crunchy craft popcorn. All this for $50 a delivery (or $48 if you prepay for three months) is a solid price considering everything you get.
Olive is great for cooking but it makes an excellent and easy accompaniment to bread before a meal or for cocktail hour. Durant’s full-bodied olive oils are made in small batches from the family’s farm in Oregon. I’m partial to this trio infused with jalapeño, garlic and orange essence to add some subtle flavor to your next party spread.
Casserole is definitely a throwback recipe so it should be made in similarly retro bakeware. This 9-by-13-inch ceramic hot dish from Great Jones is available in groovy green and yellow and will really pop on the table.
Hauling heavy (and pricey) cans of seltzer home from the store can be a thing of the past with an eco-friendly water carbonator. SodaStream is a good option but the Swedish Aarke carbonator is big on style and more giftable if you ask me. It’s available in five great finishes to match her kitchen motif.
Speaking of retro charm, this striking 2-quart saucepan looks so good it hurts. The unique and sturdy pan is made from carbon steel with an easy-clean enameled coating. The funky lid doubles as a trivet so Mom can bring it straight to the table to serve — and you know she’ll want to.
If your mom lords over the grill with regularity, delight her with some quality grilling utensils. This six-piece set comes with a compact wooden cutting board and canvas carrying case.
These classic coupes can be used for cocktails or bubbly wine. If Mom enjoys a sparkling rose, sidecar or martini, give her something really special to sip out of.
For a mom who cooks, having fresh herbs on hand will be a real boon. There are some really nice-looking smart gardens out there but this stylish model is one of my favorites. The overhead LEDs will provide enough light for growing mint, basil and parsley all year.
If your mom swoons to the tune of “sous vide” as some moms do to “diamond earrings,” then she’ll be jazzed to unwrap this sparkling little number where she can learn to do it at home. About the size of a bottle of wine, this sous vide circulator will offer her the possibility of restaurant quality, expertly executed meals with a high geek factor.
I thought my mom knew everything there was to know about cooking, but even she has learned some incredibly valuable tricks and techniques from this beloved culinary manual. Cook’s Illustrated compendium of cooking methods skims the fat and leaves the reader with 50 simple and extremely useful cooking skills and techniques you’ll use again and again.
The resource is compiled by America’s Test Kitchen and some of the most knowledgeable people in food. It’s a self-proclaimed manual for the kitchen, one that Mom should get serious use out of no matter her kitchen proficiency.
Your mother has never missed an episode of Top Chef and secretly longs for Tom Colicchio’s seal of approval. Made In’s cookware line offers exactly that with sturdy, affordable pieces of cookware, cutlery and tableware that all just look really darn good. Made In’s sleek eight-inch chef’s knife, for instance, took the top spot in our list of best direct-to-consumer knives. We also love the brand’s blue carbon steel skillet for searing hot steaks and burgers. Made In also launched a line of elegant tableware and glassware for the modern host or hostess. Any or all of the above would make winning gifts for Mom.
Some people never learn. And some people never stop learning. Is your mom the forever student type? Cooking classes are great gifts for hands-on foodie moms, and also provide the possibility of the most sought-after Mother’s Day gift of all: time spent with you.
Check out culinary course offerings from knife skills to cake decorating at your local restaurants, markets or schools (many of them are offering online options during this time), or you can gift your mom with a subscription to top-notch-nerd-factor online instruction from America’s Test Kitchen, starting at $20 per month. But Online Cooking School is the only place for excellent on-demand culinary education. See our list of the best cooking online classes to gift.
The Japanese have some seriously tasty snacks that we can’t get here. Or can we? Bokksu collects the best snacks from the east and sends them west in a curated monthly snack subscription. This is a perfect gift for any mom prone to snack attacks.
My favorite thing about Bokksu is that almost none of these Japanese snacks are ones we already have here in the US, so she’ll almost certainly come across munchies she’s never tried. Snacks run the gamut from sweet to savory with favorites such as seaweed tempura, puffed rice with ramen seasoning, green tea and lemon cakes, Japanese candy including yuzu gummies and creamy matcha Kit-Kats.
You can send as few as three months’ worth of snack boxes ($45 each) or as many as a full year ($40 each), and no two snack sends will ever be the same.
Read more: The Best Snack Box Subscriptions: Bokksu, Tokyo Treat, Universal Yums and more
It seemed rude to write “sausage-loving mom” in a Mother’s Day gift roundup, but let’s be honest, your mom has been able to pronounce “charcuterie” without fear since she learned there was a single word to summarize her favorite food group. To celebrate Mom’s special day, forgo the skimpy selection at the market and treat mom to some of the finest cuts delivered to her door every month. We’ve put together a list of the best meat delivery options in 2022 and most have a subscription service, but Porter Road is one of our favorites with good variety and high standards in its selection of steaks, pork chops, chicken, bacon and ground beef.
Subscriptions start at $120, or get the Butcher’s Choice for $165. Boxes can be delivered every two, four or eight weeks. If you don’t want to spring for the monthly subscription you can always gift a single box of high-end meats hand-selected by you.
Your mom is literally someone who stops to smell the roses; or to gently squeeze the peaches; or to casually evaluate the density of a summer melon while chatting up the farmer about heirloom varietals. Your mom’s favorite way to spend a warm weekend day is at the farmers market.
For the lady who would rather have her accessories match her produce than her shoes, a set of these striking, Earth-friendly shopping totes will have her feeling farmers market chic all season long.
Olive oil and vinegar are pantry staples, but you can seriously upgrade mom’s bottles with Brightand’s pairing of two premium olive oils with two delicate kinds of vinegar. The Brightland California olive oil duo is ideal for any serious cook: The “Alive” made with Coratina and Frantoio olives is pitch-perfect for dressings, while the “Awake” is a bit richer, perfect for stews and dipping bread. Brightland is a particular favorite of the CNET team and everything the brand makes comes in totally adorable, eminently giftable packaging. Score!
Speaking of gifts from the sea, we’ve reeled in the best seafood delivery services in 2022 in case mom prefers to throw swordfish steaks on the grill instead of the beef variety. As with our favorite meat delivery services, these online seafood purveyors offer one-time gift box options or monthly subscriptions of wild salmon, tuna, mako, squid, scallops and shellfish, caviar and a whole lot more. This is an especially good Mother’s Day food gift for any landlocked moms who don’t have access to good fresh fish on the regular.
Fulton Fish Market is our pick for the best seafood delivery service with a huge selection of fish and rigorous transparency so you know exactly what you’re getting. There are other seafood delivery specialists like Lobster Anywhere or Real Oyster Cult if it’s the fancy stuff you’re after.
Your mom offered you a kind of lifetime warranty on the day of your birth. You can honor that commitment with a similar gesture: the counter accessory to end all counter accessories. A KitchenAid stand mixer is sturdy as a tank and appropriate whether your mom is more keen to make a routine rustic pizza dough or a delicate, special occasion soufflé.
